Tag Archives: HQ2

Don’t toy with me…

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Hasbro’s getting burned and it’s blaming Toys “R” Us. The toy company gave some abysmal holiday forecasts which sent shares down about 8%. Toys “R” Us owes creditors some $5 billion. Among them is Hasbro which was left with a $60 million hole now that all those toys from the company aren’t headed to the toy store’s shelves. It’s worth noting, however, that Hasbro only sold about 9% of its total inventory through Toys “R” Us. But it isn’t just Hasbro that’s feeling the heat. Shares of Mattel also took a 4% hit today since a Toys “R” Us bankruptcy affects the entire toy industry, in some instances worse than others. Incidentally, Hasbro’s third quarter profit went up 3% to $267 million and $2.09 per share, while its quaterly revenue increased 7% to $1.79 billion over the same time last year. Expectations were for $1.78 billion in revenue with just $1.94 per share. Hasbro has “The Last Jedi” to thank for some of this quarter’s gains, along with perennial favorites Monoply and My Little Pony.

Carrot dangling…

Image courtesy of KEKO64/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dignity be damned as 238 cities found themselves swooning and doing whatever they could to lure Amazon’s $5 billion HQ2 project to their part of the country. NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio had major New York City landmarks lit up in “Amazon orange” while Newark, New Jersey shrewdly offered the e-commerce giant $7 billion in tax breaks. Because after all, who more so than Amazon should be entitled to receive a $7 billion tax break? But hey, who can blame any of these cities or their savvy leaders for trying to woo Amazon to their neck of the woods. Just ask Seattle, a city that experienced a $38 billion boost to its economy because each dollar that Amazon invested into the city between 2010 to 2016 resulted in an additional $1.40 for the city. Not sure who figured out that formula but its easy to see why everyone wants in on that action. And while Newark’s offer must be awfully enticing, word on the street is that the current front runners are Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and Detroit.

Target acquired…

Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Target’s got some new tricks up its sleeve this holiday season and is going with the “less is more approach.” What there will be less of are promotions. At least the constant bombardment of them. Apparently that tactic didn’t work so well for the retailer last year and only resulted in a 1.3% decline for the company. But there’s no need to freak out that Target wont be offering any special deals. It’s just going for a more streamlined approach. Instead of constant deals and promotions, it plans to offer special weekend deals while remaining focused on pricing its merchandise correctly and competitively from the start. The company’s 1,800 stores will also offer a much bigger variety of gifts priced under $15. Expect to see around 1,700 offerings in that category. Perennial favorite, “free shipping with no minimum” will once again resurface from November 1 – December 23 because, hey, who doesn’t like free shipping. But perhaps Target’s most exciting new feature is the one dubbed “Gift Now.” Shoppers buy gifts and their (un)lucky recipients open them virtually via email. If the recipient likes the gift, they enter their shipping address in order to receive the item. If not, they get to pick out something else for the same value. If that’s not novel, I don’t know what is.

Pick me! Pick me!

Image courtesy of lekkyjustdoit/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As a Thursday deadline looms, a heated race is on for cities across the United States (okay, and Canada too) as they toss away all their dignity in desperate attempts to woo Amazon and its latest project. The e-commerce giant announced about a month ago that it wants to set up a second headquarters, dubbed HQ2 and now there’s a mad dash from Atlanta to Grand Rapids and beyond to claim that glory, not to mention the $5 billion investment that comes with it. The fact that a project of this magnitude would also create around 50,000 jobs is the icing on this proverbial fiscal cake. Of course, Amazon’s got its own formula for picking the winning city and it’s got very little to do with Tucson delivering a 70 ft. saguaro cactus to Amazon’s Seattle door or Birmingham erecting giant replicas of Amazon boxes and strategically placing them around the city. For Amazon, it will probably boil down to which city will offer up the best tax incentives and breaks from local and state governments. In fact, the company has earned quite the reputation for being able to secure those tax breaks, whether through the promise of job creation or other financial packages that would have any major city’s mouth watering. Besides financial incentives for Amazon, any city that legitimately stands a snowball’s chance is also going to have to be in close proximity to a major airport, possess the infrastructure to support the project, have easy access to mass transit and a population that boasts at least a million people to readily fill tens of thousands of jobs. That right there puts the kibosh on a bunch of contenders. But you know which cities analysts are expecting to see on the short list? Atlanta, Denver and Pittsburgh. As for Tucson and its aforementioned cactus, well you can visit the rejected botanical specimen at the Desert Museum.

It’s all a matter of perspective…or is it?

Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Weinstein Co. may be getting a much-needed cash-infusion to stay afloat in the wake of co-founder Harvey Weinstein’s ever-growing sexual harassment scandal. The cash-infusion could come from a private equity firm called Colony Capital, headed by an individual named Tom Barrack. If the name Tom Barrack rings a bell that’s because he served as chairman of President Trump’s Private Inaugural Committee and his name is being been bandied about as a pick for the White House Chief of Staff. That’s right! Harvey Weinstein, an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter and staunch Democratic donor is probably getting a bailout from a Trump ally. But for Barrack, it’s all in a days work since he has a habit of picking up distressed companies in the entertainment realm, making all sorts of deals for the assets still in its clutches and making a mean mint in the process. Perhaps you can take comfort in the fact that there’s a good chance that this bailout will actually mean the Weinstein name disappears from the company, along with some of its honchos, because apparently, they knew about Harvey Weinstein’s sickening behavior for a long time. A sale could also mean that the Weinstein company, sans the name which is now synonymous with lechery, harassment, and abuse, could be restored to its former glory as a powerhouse of independent film and television production.

Let it snow let it snow let it snow…

Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We may still have Halloween ahead of us but Nordstrom is already gearing up for Christmas. The retailer, which has seen its share of loss in the last few quarters – along with every other retailer in the U.S. – previously had plans for the founding namesake family to take the company private. There’s talk that the family, who controls a third of the shares, was trying to team up with private equity firm Leonard Green Partners to achieve this goal. However, now those plans are on hold to until after the holiday shopping season because rumor has it, the Nordstroms have been experiencing some issues borrowing cash at a respectable rate, whatever that means. Interestingly enough, while the company isn’t faring as well in terms of same-store sales, its e-commerce is alive, well and thriving quite nicely. Still, Wall Street didn’t much care for the news and sent shares plummeting over 6% Those shares, by the way, are over 30% lower than its 52-week high of $62.82.